Police chief provides update on investigation

The campus community is safe and a criminal investigation has been launched in the wake of a small explosion in an on-campus apartment early Thursday morning, UC Davis Police Chief Matt Carmichael said today (Jan. 18).

Potentially dangerous chemicals were removed from one apartment and disposed of Thursday evening during a series of supervised explosions in a nearby field, Carmichael said. No arrests had been made.

Carmichael said law enforcement officials alerted residents in the area that the suspicious chemicals would be disposed of and that people were likely to hear noise from the controlled explosions.

About 100 people were temporarily displaced from their apartments in the Russell Park and Orchard Park housing facilities on Thursday as police searched the unit where the explosion occurred and gathered evidence.

The daycare center in Russell Park closed as a precaution on Thursday and reopened today.

Staff from Student Affairs and Tandem Properties, which owns and operates the Russell Park apartments, remained on site into the night Thursday to assist residents who had been displaced. All residents have been notified that it is safe to return to their apartments.

Carmichael said numerous agencies assisted in the initial investigation, including the FBI; the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives bomb squad; the Yolo County Narcotics Enforcement Team;and bomb squads from Yolo, Sacramento, Placerville and El Dorado counties.

The campus community has been kept informed through the WarnMe system and updates on the campus home page: (ucdavis.edu).

The initial investigation began early Thursday after campus police were alerted to the small explosion. The resident of the apartment, a researcher at UC Davis, was injured during the explosion and had sought treatment at an area hospital.